Why History?

• Always study history because you take pleasure in it, of course. History offers the opportunity to enlarge your imaginative life beyond the boundaries of your mere lived experience. But studying history seriously has its uses beyond diversion.
• In a culture that places primary value only on living in the present, studying history can offer a rare foundation for critiquing or at least comprehending the current state of the world. Valid history helps you cut through the myths that cloud our understanding of ourselves and others, and offers a depth of comprehension that few other disciplines can promise.
• Few limits exist to what you may study. Politics, sexual relations, art, economics, literature, rebellion, power, war--history draws no boundaries between what you may and may not examine in your attempt to analyze the "dead rubbish" that constitutes the history of human societies.

You will learn a great deal about certain subjects, and you will also develop the historian's primary skills: the ability to analyze complex questions; a detective's eye for finding information (without having to beat it out of a suspect); and the power of writing and thinking clearly

What to tell Mom & Dad

So your relatives all think that majoring in History is a one-way ticket to working the Fryolator? You just tell them:

1. History majors often take their overstuffed brains and analytical powers to advanced degrees or careers in the law, journalism, business, social welfare, education, and even medicine, and they find that their history training has prepared them exceptionally well for these fields.

2. A recent survey of History Department alumni uncovered unanimous agreement that training in history had been very useful in the "real world" of work, both because of the research and writing skills students had developed and because of the greater depth of understanding history had provided. Some of them said:

• "It opened many avenues for further intellectual exploration–in politics, business, government, international relations, art, and culture."
• "Really, knowledge of history gives you such an advantage over historiophobes that you can run all over them in long-term business planning. Applies in U.S., Europe, Asia."
• "Invaluable."
• "I believe my background in history gave me a broader perspective on events than my counterparts received in Journalism school. My history classes also encouraged a clean writing style suitable for the media and business–there's no room for flowery prose there." (from a journalist)
• "Professors Greaves, Ciencala, Sponholz, Hiner, Paludan, and Brundage made a tremendous impact on my life. I am forever grateful."

Actual results may vary, but these graduates all found that studying History at KU had practical as well as intellectual benefits.

3. Maybe there's nothing wrong with being an intellectually fulfilled fry-cook